WEST POINT, Neb. (AP) — A collaboration between a city and several northeast Nebraska educational institutions has announced plans to build a $2.7 million training facility meant to expand career and technical education in the region.

Mayor Marlene Johnson signed a memorandum of understanding Monday on behalf of the City of West Point. Other project partners include the Northeast Community College of Norfolk, Wayne State College, the City of Wayne and Educational Service Unit 2.

The proposed 15,000-square-foot (nearly 1,400 square meters) facility will be constructed near the Nielsen Community Center in West Point.

The education center is expected to be ready by fall 2018. Up to six career pathways are anticipated to be available to students at the facility by fall 2019.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a state-required DNA test for a Nebraska prison inmate links him to four rapes reported more than 10 years ago in Omaha.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says he intends to charge Brandon Weathers with rapes committed in 2002 and 2004. Weathers already is serving 100 to 160 years for raping a 13-year-old child.

The World-Herald reported in April that more than 70 inmates had refused to provide DNA samples as required by state law. A June 5 court order gave officials authority to use force to obtain Weathers’ sample if he again refused. He did, so guards held him down and took a sample from a cheek.

Authorities say the Nebraska State Patrol lab connected the sample to the four cases.

DILLER, Neb. (AP) — Officials are investigating what caused the collapse of a large wind turbine tower in the Steele Flats Wind Farm in southeastern Nebraska.

The turbine had been standing just southwest of Diller and was part of the $138 million wind farm, developed by Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources. The wind farm includes 32 wind turbines in southeast Jefferson County and 12 more in southwest Gage County.

NextEra Energy spokesman Bryan Garner says the company is investigating the cause of the collapse.

Garner says the turbine went offline shortly before 5 a.m. Tuesday. He says there’s no evidence of sabotage and that the manufacturer will be able to help the company look into the cause of the failure.

MALCOLM, Neb. (AP) — Refugees from northern Iraq have established a national cemetery in southeast Nebraska.

About 250 people gathered Saturday to celebrate the establishment of the new 20-acre Yazidi Cemetery.

The land was bought for $150,500 in October by the United Yezidi Community of America, a Lincoln nonprofit aiming to unify the Yazidi community.

Yazidi people are ethnically Kurdish and have long faced persecution for their religion, the most recent being the 2014 genocide by the Islamic State in northern Iraq.

The nonprofit’s website says Lincoln has the highest Yazidi population in the country. Co-founder Khalaf Hesso says the cemetery is for all Yazidis in the United States.

Nonprofit President Alias Aldakhi says the cemetery binds the community together and gives its roots in Nebraska.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 2-year-old and 8-year-old have been taken into state custody because they were found locked outside their south-central Nebraska home in the 91-degree heat.

Someone called police around 6:30 p.m. Sunday after spotting the children apparently trying to get into their Hastings home. The children reported that they’d been locked outside since before lunch.

The officers knocked on the residence doors, but no one answered. Police say the children seemed OK and didn’t need medical attention.

Police say the parents never did show up Sunday evening. It’s unclear whether they surfaced Monday. A police spokesman didn’t immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

JUNE 11, 2017 (LINCOLN, NEB.)  — Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) troopers have arrested a man suspected of shooting at a vehicle traveling on Interstate 80 in Lincoln.

The incident occurred just after 12:30 p.m. Sunday, June 11, 2017. Troopers, assisted by Lincoln Police, responded to reports that the driver of a red Toyota Rav4 had displayed a handgun in the window and fired multiple shots at another vehicle while both were driving westbound on I-80.

Neither occupant of the victims’ car were injured, but the car was struck by at least one bullet. After arriving on the scene, troopers arrested Havacu Quintero, 48. Quintero was lodged in Lancaster County Jail on charges of Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Prohibited Person in Possession of a Firearm, False Reporting, and Possession of Forged Documents.

The Nebraska State Patrol Aerial Division assisted in the situation.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police say three people were killed when two motorcycles collided at an intersection in the middle of Omaha.

Police say the crash happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, when a Suzuki motorcycle ran a red light and hit a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Police say two riders on the Harley — 34-year-old Adam Kammann, of La Vista, and 37-year-old Christine Zadina, of Omaha — and the Suzuki driver, 24-year-old Andrew Torrice of Omaha, all died.

Police say all three were wearing helmets.

Investigators say excessive speed by the Suzuki is considered a factor in the crash.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha police are investigating a crash that killed a 40-year-old Omaha woman.

Police say the crash happed around 2:30 a.m. Sunday when a sport utility vehicle left an east Omaha roadway and hit a tree.

Police say the driver, Lakeisha Gamble, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say she was not wearing a seat belt.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Omaha’s police chief is recommending the firing of two police officers involved in the death of a man who had been beaten and shocked a dozen times by a stun gun in an altercation with officers.

Chief Todd Schmaderer said in news conference Friday that he plans to fire two of four Omaha officers involved in the early Monday morning incident in which officers confronted 29-year-old Zachary Bearheels, of Murdo, South Dakota.

Police say Bearheels, who has a history of mental illness, was acting erratically and fought officers’ efforts to take him into custody. After being shocked with a stun gun, Bearheels was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Schmaderer said officers violated policy by dragging Bearheels by his hair, shocking him 12 times and hitting him, including times when Bearheels was not resisting.

WAYNE, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a 24-year-old man has died after falling from a balcony of a downtown Wayne building.

The accident happened Thursday night. Wayne Police Chief Marlen Chinn says officers responded to a 9:45 p.m. call of a man injured in a fall.

Upon arriving, officers found Clay Block, of Wayne, unresponsive on the sidewalk on the south side of the building.

A witness reported that Block had fallen from a second-story egress balcony and landed on the concrete below.

Block was taken to a Wayne hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The investigation into Block’s death continues.

___